96 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



the good kind animal which carried our Lord into 

 Jerusalem ? " 



Martin poised his stick, his face unmoved. 



And then *' Indeed, your reverence," he said 

 — whack came the stick, " If He had to be above 

 on this wan, He'd niver have got there." 



Further comment seemed useless. 



They pull coal down there from the anthracite 

 collieries at Castlecomer to Kilkenny, and one 

 day we met a man, his horse absolutely exhausted 

 stuck at the hiU just going into the town. 



We stopped to tell him to give the poor brute a 

 rest, and then try him again. 



" An' oughtn't he to be well able to do the hill," 

 he said sombrely, " an' he to have twelve mile of a 

 run at it." 



I know two racing men who have both pro- 

 bably forgotten more crooked ways than most 

 people ever knew, and they had quarrelled over 

 a sporting bone which both desired to pick. They 

 were going off to Cork races. 



" Good morning, Honest Man," spat one out 

 bitterly. 



" Good mornin' . . . Brother," came the sweet 

 undisturbed response. 



We have an old horse dealer here, stone deaf 

 — ^if he does not want to hear — and yet a better 

 judge of horses' wind than most vets., who went one 

 day to Ennis and was taken by a friend into one 

 of the bigger hotels for luncheon. 



